It was a cloudy day and a stiff breeze blew through the air. The team rode on the back of Lhasa as Ahmad sat at the reins. The cold wind blew something into Ahmad's hair. He picked it up and held it in front of his face. In his hand was a solid red leaf. Summer was ending and autumn was on the horizon. Actually, Ahmad thought to himself. He looked over the horizon and saw a thin beige line stick out from the light gray sky.
"We're not far now!" he yelled to the others over the wind.
Tiulo took a tentative glance ahead of them.
"Is that, is that Ba Seng Sei?" he asked Renko who sat next to him.
"That sure looks like the outer wall," Renko said.
"Holy," Pāru looked over their heads to take a peek. "It never ends."
It certainly looked that way. Regardless of whether or not they looked left or right, the thin beige line did not come to an end. The closer they flew the more it began to dominate their field of vision. Renko climbed down next to Ahmad.
"Looks like you and I are going to be playing tour guide."
"Looks like it. We are the only ones who have been here before," Ahmad replied. "But I am excited to meet your family."
"I'm excited for them to meet you," Renko said.
"You did tell them we were coming right?"
Renko grew quiet.
"Right?" Ahmad asked again.
"I may have forgotten to..."
"Wait," Pāru poked her over. "You. Didn't. Tell. Them."
"To be fair," Renko tried to defend himself. "We've been in the air for a while and things have happened."
Pāru, Tiulo, and Ahmad exchanged looks. Then a loud siren began to ring in their ears. A dark green airship was coming towards them from the wall. Red and White lights were flashing from the headlights on the front of the balloon. Almost instantly, Renko's head began to hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut as more memories flashed through his mind. Waves that were thirty feet high crashed violently against dark sand beaches. The wind tore through his clothes and shook him to his core. He looked up through a curtain of white hair and reached out a shaky hand towards a boat in the distance....and as suddenly as it started it stopped.
Renko was brought back to the loud sirens screaming through the air and apparently, no one noticed his little incident.
"You are entering restricted airspace," a voice was projected from the police balloon. "Please land your vehicle so that we may inspect it."
"Okay then," Ahmad said. "Lhasa, let's land over at that clearing."
The team descended to the ground where they waited. The police balloon hovered over them as platforms lowered. Three police officers in yellow and green uniforms touched down from the platforms and took to inspecting them all.
"What have we here?" a woman stood out. She spoke as if she were the one in charge. "Some kids on a sky bison?"
She looked them over and her eyes settled on Renko.
"If it isn't the Avatar and the President's son," she said. "What brings you out to Ba Seng Sei?"
"I'm visiting my family who live in the city," Renko said. He decided not to mention that he was also here to investigate Dark Hand activity. That would raise red flags.
"And who is this?" she asked.
"Pāru and Ahmad are the air nomads helping me with my air bending training. Tiulo is a member of the White Lotus."
"Hmmmm," she scribbled something on a pad of paper. "Well kids, you should know that you can't just fly over a city without the proper permits and licenses, even if it is a sky bison. Tell ya what, I'll let you off this time. You're with the Avatar and I'm a big supporter of President Ridhya. I'll escort your sky bison as far as the central precinct. After that, you're going to have to walk or take the bus."
A couple of minutes later, they were back in the air and flying ever closer to the wall. Once they flew over the outer wall, they flew over the wide farmland that stretched for miles and miles. The land below was a patchwork of squares and looked like a quilt. Each square was a different crop. Whole fields of corn and wheat swayed in the wind nearly ripe enough to be harvested. Tractors the size of toy cars plowed the fields and ant-sized people looked up at the sky bison as it passed. Then, far ahead in the distance was the inner wall. Beyond that, lay the wide spiraling city of Ba Seng Sei. Renko got a lump in his throat. He hadn't seen his family since before the election and he was excited to see them again.
"Once we fly over this wall," Ahmad said. "We'll be in the city."
Once they passed the inner wall, a metropolis of the likes of which couldn't be properly recorded with words. A sea of green tiled roofs covered as far as the eye could see with throngs of people milling about on the ground. Below them was what used to be the lower ring. Smaller houses and apartment buildings were cramped into too small spaces but the people didn't seem to mind. The streets were clean and mostly free from trash and shop owners stood outside their stores yelling out their wares.
Then, they flew over what used to be the middle ring. Towers not quite tall enough to be skyscrapers, pierced the sky and were surrounded by wider roads full of cars. Here, houses were more common, along with parks and libraries. Renko pointed below them to Ba Seng Sei University. The campus was made up with old stone buildings surrounded by green parks and food trucks. Renko also pointed out the dorms, ten to twelve story towers clustered together.
The police airship turned on its sirens again as it neared the police station. Several acres were set aside to make an airstrip. The airship touched down on the tarmac and Lhasa followed. Tiulo didn't know where to look.
"I thought Republic City was big but this is insane," he said.
The police officer that intercepted them outside the walls walked up to Renko.
"Welcome home Avatar," she said. "Does your family know you're here?"
"No..." Renko said awkwardly. "May I use your phone to call them? My uncle works at the university."
"Of course."
As Renko picked up the phone, he caught a look at Pāru and Tiulo looking around in a daze. His eyes landed on Ahmad as he fed Lhasa a head of cabbage. They caught each other's eyes and smiled. Someone on the other side of the phone answered.
"Hello?" an older sounding man answered the phone.
"Uncle?" Renko said. "It's me, I'm back home."
Renko didn't know it but he was not the only one who arrived in the city. With a hood covering his blue eyes, Ippei stepped off the train at a train station not far from the police precinct. He stood with four other Dark Hand members with hoods covering their faces.
To think I used to call this place home, Ippei thought to himself. It is time to bring this place to its knees and capture the Avatar. Ippei had a plan. A dangerous plan.
Author's note: Hello everyone, thank you for being patient with the update. My semester in school is winding down and as a result, I have a lot of school work to focus on. Thank you again for your patience and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.